"Avengers: Twilight" Solid, Pretty, but Well-Trodden

 

    You know, the older I get the more I appreciate alternative art styles when it comes to comics. I don't think it's the deciding factor but it can really help. Which is funny because I basically said Asterios Polyp was too weak outside of it's art style. Even still I must admit as a lifelong superhero's fan there's something about Avengers: Twilight that just scratches that right itch. I mean it's not anything that's never been done before, but it does make you feel a little bit of something, and it maybe, just maybe wants me to believe in Chip Zdarksy a little bit. Does this mean I'll check out Avengers: Armageddon? Eh probably not these events take like a year to finish so you always have to wait a while to fully read them all at once, but this comic was good at least. Let's talk about it.

    When you first read this comic there are a couple comparisons that come to mind pretty immediately. The Dark Knight Returns and Kingdom Come, both of which are notably DC projects but I think follow the same premise of this idea that superheroes have become unfashionable. Like Kingdom Come the striking art style is what really sells this premise, after all unlike those stories this is a six-issue story. I'm not saying it's as good as those projects, but for a modern version of those project it's still pretty good. Like it isn't Old Man Logan trying to make some super edgy, hopeless world, it's just a world that needs to be reminded that it still needs heroes.

    That is not to say I don't have gripes with this story though. The more I type this review the more I realize that it kind of does follow many of the same beats as Kingdom Come , because I liked the reveal about The Hulk being the reason it was named H-day, but at the same time I am now realizing it's pretty similar to the Lex Luthor Billy Batson reveal from KC. Maybe for a Marvel version of that story it's fairly solid. Frankly, I've never particularly rated The Red Skull as a villain, even though I know he's supposed to be Captain America's biggest villain, the copout that he was still alive, using Iron Man armor (how many stories involve villains using this by the way) and manipulating Tony and Janet's son (I don't know why they're a couple here) was kind of weak.

    What was even weaker was the whole bit about Ultron, and then him dying pretty quickly as well. Like really? That's all that was going to happen? I know it would have been a bit fan-servicey and gotten a bit too collab heavy, but a part of me did want to see what happened to the rest of the heroes. It's so easy to simply say they died in H-day which isn't explained very well. So the Hulk was controlled by Ultron, then they dropped bombs on most of the heroes? It isn't explained very well in my opinion, especially when the big reveal is that the "new" Avengers are fake and holograms anyways. It's not that I don't understand the whole deal with the message about the media manipulating people, but the way it was implemented was kind of weak.

    Seriously what happened though? Like in The Dark Knight Returns heroes have been legislated out of existence basically, but in this one heroes have just become old or they all retired and it's never quite explained why. It's not bad but it could be better. I will say I know people joke that this comic has the "Thor aura moments" but Thor is very cool in this story when he comes back down to help Captain America once again. Then his battle with the Hulk is fun to watch as he bests him, and then the final scene with Loki is a nice callback to the first Avengers story as well. 

Final Score: 70/100

    I wanted to give this comic a higher score, something more akin to a 75 or an 80 but I can't help but come away feeling like it's a less in-depth riff on very popular DC elseworld stories. Man like what does this have against the other comics I mentioned? Nothing unless you're a really big fan of Marvel comics and it's characters. But even then it only features a couple, you'd have to be a big Captain America, Luke Cage, Thor and maybe Iron Man fan? I did like the Ms. Marvel inclusion, though i kind of wish more she had a larger role in it, I just wanted to see younger and newer heroes thrown in there if that makes any sort of sense. Even still, half the time I see what Marvel is currently doing comics-wise I just kind of scratch my head and look for older comics to go explore, so this is a decent step above that to say the least.